"Poor little Bear!," one person posted on the shelter's Facebook page. "Certainly you lost one or two of your nine lives! Hang on, Baby!"

The fluffy gray cat, nicknamed "Bear," was discovered by Gisela Hvamstad and her 14-year-old daughter, Danaya, on Friday near their home at the intersection of 24th Street North and 9th Avenue North.

It was in the middle of the street with a leghold trap attached to its front paw. They captured the frightened and hissing cat as it tried to drag itself under a vehicle, then called Great Falls Animal Control.

Setting a steel jaw trap or snare within the city limits of Great Falls is a misdemeanor punishable by a minimum fine of $300 and a maximum fine of $1,000 and/or up to six months in jail.

Trap Free Montana Public Lands, a not-for-profit that promotes trapping reform heard about the trapped cat in Great Falls and offered to pay the veterinarian bills.

"The shelter called me this morning and elected to amputate the cat's leg," KC York, the group's executive director, said Tuesday evening. "Weird to say how happy that made me. Now recovery, and then adoption."